New system wins Minister's approval

11:00am Friday 26th May 2006

THE controversial decision to scrap weekly household waste pick-ups in York has been backed by Ministers.

As Guildhall bosses revealed the reintroduction of the alternate waste collection scheme had diverted more than 369 tonnes of garden waste from landfill sites, demands that councils should be forced to collect household rubbish at least once a week were rejected by the Government.

Lord Bach, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Junior Minister, brushed aside concerns about the health risks of disposable nappies not being collected for as long as a fortnight. He said the Government had "no plans" to introduce a legal obligation for a weekly rubbish collection because "it has not identified a need for this", after Conservatives said it was "very unfair" that some people had a collection every two weeks. The Evening Press' Bin It! campaign has backed the reintroduction of weekly household waste pick-ups while supporting other recycling initiatives. More than 7,500 people have signed up to a petition backing the stance. But Lord Bach said elected local government should decide the frequency.

Council chiefs said in the three weeks since green bins were reintroduced, following a winter break, the amount of waste sent to landfill sites had fallen significantly - from 1,144.45 tonnes during the week beginning February 20 to 921.34 tonnes by the second week of the garden waste collections.

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